The overall aim of this study is to examine for the first time, and in considerable detail, the relationship between health and residential relocation (geographic mobility) among the very old. The study is grounded in a developmental perspective of elderly migration, especially as it relates to health, and to the helping behavior of others, especially family members. The socio- economic status of the subjects and their rural-urban mobility patterns are also considered. More broadly, the impact of residential context on residential relocation will be studied. This project can only be accomplished because it uses the very recently released Longitudinal Study of Aging (LSOA) tapes from the National Center for Health Statistics. The LSOA is designed to measure change in the functional status and the living arrangements of older people, and provide measures of health, including functional capacity, funtional dependency, health status and health care use. The LSOA is based on participants in a 1984 study, the Supplement on Aging (SOA) that was added to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) that year. The Census Bureau did the interviewing for the National Center for Health Statistics. Five thousand one hundered and fifty one of the SOA sample who were 70 years old in 1984 were reinterviewed in 1986. The two linked datasets allow us to analyze the impact of health on residential mobility among the very old. A further linking of the Country Adjacency Codes, the Health Demographic Profile System and the Area Resources File, as a part of this proposed project, will make it possible to examine the geographical context of the sample subjects as that influences their mobility behavior. The resulting dataset will be achieved. Log-linear analytic techniqus will create composite measures. Hypotheses will be treated using variety of analytic techniques.